Former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, a quarter-finalist last week in San Jose, beat No. 7 seed Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-4, 7-6(3) on Wednesday in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships.
Hewitt, who is ranked 70th and unseeded in the tournament, wasn’t pleased with how the second set unfolded.
“It’s always frustrating to be up a set and a break and [not] close it out,” Hewitt said.
Photo: Reuters
“I felt like I came out and I was ready to go right from the start, which was a key out there because Lu is a good ball-striker,” the Australian said.
“He hits a lot of winners out there and it’s hard to be real aggressive against him,” Hewitt said.
In the men’s doubles top seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Daniel Nestor of Canada ended Lu and Janko Tipsarevic’s hopes of progressing with a 6-3, 6-1 victory.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Milos Raonic beat No. 2 seed Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5), his second victory over the Spaniard in four days.
Raonic, aged 20 and the fastest rising young star on the ATP Tour, beat Verdasco on Sunday in the finals of the SAP Open in San Jose for his first career title.
He has risen from 159 in the world to start the year to 59 this week.
A frustrated Verdasco lamented having to play the hard-serving Raonic twice in conditions that favor his game and not the Spaniard’s.
The points were quickly played.
“For me that’s not a real match in tennis,” Verdasco said. “I hope to play soon against him in clay court to show him what it is to play tennis, and play rallies, and run, and not only serve.”
In second round action, No. 4 Mardy Fish of the US defeated Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (3) and Robert Kendrick beat fellow-American James Blake 7-6 (5), 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of an ATP event for the first time since July 2006.
Frenchman Florent Serra knocked out No. 9 seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium, who had to retire in the second set trailing 6-2, 1-0.
In the women’s event, No. 3 seed Melanie Oudin of the US was eliminated by Evgeniya Rodina of Russia, 6-1, 7-5. Oudin’s loss left sixth-seeded Rebecca Marino of Canada as the lone remaining seed in the tournament.
OPEN 13
AP, MARSEILLE, FRANCE
Former champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France rallied to beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 on Wednesday in the second round of the Open 13.
The sixth-seeded Tsonga, who won the indoor tournament in Marseille two years ago, dropped his serve once in the first set but didn’t face another breakpoint.
Meanwhile, fourth seed Jurgen Melzer of Austria had an easier path into the last eight, beating Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-5, 6-3.
Tsonga broke Stakhovsky’s serve three times over the last two sets, while both players finished with 11 aces.
In other first-round matches, there were wins for Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, Germany’s Philipp Petzschner and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France.
Ljubicic beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-4; Petzschner upset No. 7 Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-6 (2), 6-1, and Roger-Vasselin won 6-3, 6-2 against countryman Arnaud Clement.
COPA CLARO
AP, BUENOS AIRES
Fourth-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain beat Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the Copa Claro quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Montanes broke Fognini four times in the match, including the only break of the third set, and won 50 percent of the points on the Italian’s second serve.
Second seed Stanislas Wawrinka needed almost three hours to beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-7 (2), 6-1, 7-6 (4).
In a late match, No. 5 seed Juan Monaco defeated fellow Argentine Eduardo Schwank 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Earlier, eighth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina defeated countryman Horacio Zeballos 7-5, 6-2.
DUBAI OPEN
AP, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Anna Chakvetadze collapsed on court on Wednesday and had to retire from her match with top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki.
The 23-year-old Russian was serving for the second set at 5-3.
After a long rally that Wozniacki won, Chakvetadze wobbled before fainting. She was given extensive medical treatment during a seven minute delay and returned for one more point before forfeiting the match and tearfully hugging Wozniacki.
Organizers said Chakvetadze, who lost the first set 6-1, had a stomach illness.
Wozniacki said it was a “shock” to see someone she considers a good friend collapse so suddenly. When she approached her, Chakvetadze said she had felt dizzy.
“Suddenly, I just see her collapse on the court. I didn’t know what happened,” the 20-year-old Dane said. “It was a shock. It was scary. To see someone collapse on other side, it’s not a nice sight. I just want to make sure she was OK.”
Wozniacki, who needs to reach the semi-finals in Dubai to retake the No. 1 spot she lost on Monday to Kim Clijsters, looked like she was coasting to an easy victory after winning the first set in 22 minutes. However, Chakvetadze woke up in the second and seemed on the verge of leveling the match.
“In the first set, I didn’t get into the game that much,” Wozniacki said. “She was making a lot of mistakes. Suddenly, she started to go for it. I just need some time. I started playing better at the end of the second set.”
In the first big upset of the tournament so far, Australian Open finalist Li Na wasted four match points in a 6-7 (6), 7-6 (6), 6-2 loss to Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.
The fifth-seeded Li led 6-2 in the second set tiebreaker before Wickmayer reeled off the next six points to level the match.
The 25th-ranked Belgian broke for a 4-2 lead in the deciding set when Li double faulted. Li then hit a forehand long to make it 5-2 on the way to the Belgian’s victory.
In afternoon matches, Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova both won to set up their first clash since their nearly five-hour-long epic at the Australian Open.
Schiavone accounted for Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-1 while Kuznetsova took the long road to beat Tsevetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Sam Stosur thrashed Sara Errani of Italy 6-0, 6-1 in 55 minutes, and seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Chinese qualifier Peng Shuai 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5).
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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